The Power of Cult Branding: How 9 Magnetic Brands Turned Customers into Loyal Followers (and Yours Can, Too!)

by Bolivar J. Bueno and Matthew W. Ragas

Book Overview

Identifies the seven characteristics of cult brands, or products whose loyal customers are responsible for a large percentage of their marketing, profiling such brands as Star Trek and Harley-Davidson... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761536949
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Prima Venture
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.9" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Buy this one NOW!

Like me, you have read one book after another on marketing and advertising and are still hungry. You can now add these authors to a list of bold new visionaries in marketing. After you've read books from "The Wizard of Ads" and "Marketing Outrageously" you should get this one. Don't buy all of them at the same time or you will melt your cortex. I had the great fortune to meet both The Wizard and Bolivar Bueno in the same incredible day and can tell that these men are certainly leading the pack. In fact, a large number of major industry players are listening to and following their every word. Buy this book and as Bolivar wrote in mine "Dare to be unconventional"

Very happy reader!

Whether you're a fan of one of Ragas & Bueno's "cult brands," or a business owner who wants to build his/her own cult brand, this is a fun read, chock full of information. These two guys have skipped the filler and gotten right down to the "how to" of establishing a brand with a legion of followers. This is down to earth advice that's actually doable, no matter what the size of your business. As a reader who works in retail and who is a Jimmy Buffett fan (he's one of the cult brands), I couldn't put this book down, and found lots of pages to mark for future reference. Can't wait to see what these two tackle next!

The New Era in Branding....

It was a pleasure to read such a refreshing book... on Marketing.As a small business owner I got plenty of new ideas to bring to reallity the dream of an entrepeneur: create a cult out of a brand.Congratulations to Ragas and Bueno, for giving us a wonderful book.

I want to be the first kid on my block to own a Cult Brand

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a deep love of their life's work -- like I do -- who yearns to see it succeed beyond their wildest expectations. Who hasn't wanted to be the next Apple, Oprah, Harley or WWF? How is such a phenomenon even accomplished? This book teaches you exactly how it's done, but it doesn't stop there: it gives you the tools necessary to do it, all neatly wrapped inside of Seven Golden Rules, that spell out EXACTLY how to achieve converting customers into loyal followers who evangelize on a company's behalf. After reading this book, I FINALLY know how to achieve this!Now I know what it takes to convert them from simple customers into passionate fans who spread the good word and spend lots of money. The Power of Cult Branding offers a clear road map, peppered with real-life examples of how others have accomplished building Cult Brands. It's a doable and reproducible process. Ragas and Bueno have dispelled all the mystery on how any business - no matter what size, can achieve its ultimate dream. The conclusion is my favorite because it takes you by the hand and walks you step by step through CUSTOMIZING the Seven Golden Rules so it's relevant to your situation. This chapter alone is more than worth the price of the book.I bought this book last Tuesday and I'm on the second pass ... it's already annotated with ideas on how I can apply the Seven Golden Rules to my own company's services. This book is going straight into my "frequently referred to" list of books.Buy it, you will not be disappointed.

What's this about Cults?!

Pay very close attention: "Cult Branding" and "The Seven Golden Rules" are going to make it into the vocabulary of marketers and business owners.Although the book seems to be geared towards small to mid-sized business owners, I suspect that even huge brands like Sears and IBM are going to want to build loyal followings around specific product offerings by applying the concepts and ideas spelled out in this book.I was at my college bookstore and at first, the title left me a bit perplexed: The Power of CULT Branding. It sounded negative to me, so it piqued my interest. I bought it after skimming through the pages. This relatively small book is deep; it made me think really hard.This book is groundbreaking in that it dares to go where other marketing books haven't: by drawing a parallel between loyalty exhibited by cult members to their cult and fans of successful brands to their brand. That took some daring on the part of the authors. When you read it, you'll see the brilliance behind the idea.After reading it, I discovered that it's not at all negative. On the contrary. All of the brands featured in the book facilitate people getting together so they can go and be with their "own kind." At these events, customers of these brands can form extended families that share in the same value system as they do.It's a practical guide to how a company can help and reward their loyal customers by supporting them, by helping the customer to achieve fullfilment in their lives. Take Harley, for example, they host bike week events and support bike clubs; Vans Shoes, they build skate parks; Jimmy Buffet, he does music that strikes a chord with people of many different backgrounds and they form groups who support and help each other.Power of Cult Branding is required reading if you've ever read any of the Guerilla Marketing books. Why? Simple. Because this one takes it a step deeper: it doesn't just talk about marketing techniques and ideas, it talks about taking it to the next level and speaking to the deepest needs of the customers so they'll rally around your brand.The book also offers some real fascinating insights into how the brands profiled in the book achieved their stardom. I gained a new appreciation and respect for the founders and teams that built these brands. It requires some serious effort to grow a business, but the advice contained in this book will make it that much easier for a business to achieve its goals of winning and keeping customers.Being a Marketing major, I'm recommending this book to my professors and peers.